sweat band finish for forage caps

[J.H.Berger]

Comrades,
I have studied pictures of original forage caps and other sources but I couldn't find the info I was searching for. I know that the sweat bands used on original forage caps were made of goat or sheep morocco leather and had a checkerboard pattern stamped into it.
The color fof the leather was supposed to be black but many originals are brown which indicates that the sweat bands were either painted black and faded or they were brown from the beginning as dyed leather would have become even darker from the sweat.
Now. Does anybody of you have references how the finish of the sweat bands was supposed to be/done? Was it painted like the visor and chin strap with linseed oil paint, was it stained?
Any referances would be highly appreciated!

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: sweat band finish for forage caps

In the 1855 Musket manual, there is a paragraph on "Mr. Dinghee's method for reblacking belts". (I'm not making this up) The formula that is given is a mixture of pyrolignite of iron and nut galls. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the formula for ink without the astringent gum arabic.

Now, if this is in fact a formula for blacking, then over time, the blacking will turn brown because the iron in the iron sulphate will rust. This has been proved by many poorly dyed leather items that have been mis-identified as brown or russet, i.e. Confederate cartridge boxes and such.

So there is a distinct possibility that the brown forage cap liners you see could have started out as black liners, just dyed with a cheaper dye.

[J.H.Berger]

Re: sweat band finish for forage caps

Well Bob,
I doubt the sweat bands were dyed with iron dye. If you bring leather in contact with sweat it becomes darker so instead of becoming brown a dyed leather would have become even darker.
I use iron dye on my leatherwork but I wonder if the sweat band was painted with the same paint used on the visor or if it was stained in a way.

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: sweat band finish for forage caps

I know that leather becomes darker with age and sweat and assorted DNA. However, iron-based dyes were used with leather, but not always. Iron dye would have been a cheaper, quicker solution. And, iron dye, whether it's ink or not, oxidizes over time, turning brown. Many, many pieces of original correspondence appear to have been written with brown ink. While some brown ink existed, the overwhelming majority of those documents were actually wrtten with black ink. The ink then oxidized over time (rusted) and turned brown. Now, I'm not saying that forage cap sweatbands were not dyed brown. All I'm saying that just because a forage cap band appears now to have been dyed brown, this does not mean that it was originally dyed brown. It very well could have been dyed black with a cheaper iron-based dye, and now looks brown.

Some years back, someone made a study of Confederate leather gear. They were particularly interested in why so much gear appeared to be dyed brown instead of black, particularly since the regulations and contracts called for black equipment. What their research proved was that while some of the gear was dyed brown, the majority of this so-called brown equipment was actually dyed black with iron-based dyes. The dye oxidized over time, turning the equipment brown from its original color of black.

You know, back in the day, everyone believed that all "authentic" garments had to be sewn with brown thread, because every original garment on display in museums appeared to be sewn with brown thread. Then someone got the bright idea to investigate this, and discovered that the thread was dyed with logwood dyes, which did not hold their color over time when exposed to light. Today, everyone knows that the thread color is supposed to match the cloth color. But 25 years ago, people insisted that a garment wasn't correct unless it was sewn with brown thread.